


After Rain

by Piinutbutter



Category: Hylics (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 21:01:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14173323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piinutbutter/pseuds/Piinutbutter
Summary: For all that Wayne lost when he came to Earth, he gained someone new.





	After Rain

Moving day was a more casual affair than it had any right to be.

All the drama had been taken care of in the days leading up to Wayne’s departure. All the shouting, all the proclamations, all the terse negotiations made in the heat of the moment - they were behind him. Now it was just Wayne, the meager allowance he’d managed to yank on his way out of the Lunar Fortress, and an isolated house that was a starker white than any building Wayne had seen back home.

Wayne was in the middle of organizing what little furniture had come with the place when a human walked through his front door. There was a solid few seconds of mutual wide-eyed staring before Wayne thought to offer a wave and a “Hi?”

That shook the human out of her surprise. She returned the gesture, letting the bag she had slung over her shoulder fall to her side. “Uh, hey. Sorry. This place has been empty for ages. I didn’t expect anyone to be here.”

The human was so _tiny_. Wayne had heard that the people down here were smaller, but he hadn’t been expecting such a drastic difference. 

“Yeah. I just moved in,” Wayne explained. “What did you need?”

“Hm? Oh.” The human gestured upstairs with the hand that held her bag. “This place gets infested with insects all the time. I just collect them.”

“Huh. Cool.” Wayne pushed the ancient TV out of the path of the staircase. “You can go do that, if you want. I don’t care about insects.” In truth, Wayne wasn’t quite sure what insects looked like, having never seen one in person, but the human didn’t need to know that. “I’ll just...be down here. Moving things.”

The human put a hand on her hip. Her body drowned beneath the fabric folds of an oversized poncho. “That’s nice, but don’t you want some help? I’d feel weird just going about my business in someone else’s house while they do all the work.”

Wayne cocked his head. “Are you sure? I don’t wanna, y’know, bother you.”

“Trust me,” the human said, “I’m bored out of my skull these days. You’d be doing me a favor.” 

Wayne smiled for the first time in days. “Sweet.”

The human set her bag down and withdrew something from it. She slipped a pair of oversized gauntlets onto her hands, dusted them together, and walked over to the couch in the corner. “Where do you want this?”

“In the center of the room, I’m thinking, but isn’t that-” He was going to say _too heavy for you_ , but by the time he reached that part of the sentence, the human had dragged the couch where he wanted it one-handed. She noticed Wayne’s shock, and gave him a grin. 

Wayne chuckled and went to set up the TV. “I’m Wayne, by the way.”

“Somsnosa. So, what made you move out to the middle of nowhere?”

He shrugged. “Strong disagreements back at home.”

“Ouch. Hope things get better.” Somsnosa picked up his suitcase, visibly caught off guard at how light it was. “Where should this go?”

“Dunno yet. Just leave it there.”

Somsnosa looked around the room and realized that was literally all Wayne had brought with him. “I’m guessing you don’t know anyone out here yet?”

“Can’t say I do.” Wayne flopped down on the couch. “Thanks, though.”

“No problem.” Somsnosa joined him. Her legs dangled off the edge of the cushion, feet not quite touching the ground. “Want me to show you around? This place is quiet, but I know some cool spots to hang out.” She looked over at him, examining his face. The shape of it was undoubtedly unfamiliar to her, but she didn’t comment on it. “Honestly, I could use a buddy. It’s kind of hard to make friends when half the people you meet just spout nonsense at you until you go away.”

Wayne offered her a hand. Somsnosa took off one of her gauntlets to shake it. “You got a deal.”

A creature the size of Wayne’s head meandered out from under the couch, dragging itself through the carpet on dozens of springy legs. Somsnosa shot her arm out and grabbed the thing, squashing it between her hands in one swift movement.

Wayne stared.

“Sorry,” she muttered, wiping arthropod residue on her poncho. “I forget it freaks people out when I do that.”

“Just surprised me, s’all,” Wayne assured her. “You can’t freak me out.”

“Really now?” Somsnosa raised her fists, feinting a playful punch in Wayne’s direction. “I can’t intimidate you even a little bit? Is the big bad moon man too tough to be scared?”

The smile Wayne gave in response was more wistful than amused. In truth, Wayne could remember feeling fear exactly once in his life. He had grown up carefree - though not careless - and sheltered enough that true cause for fear had never invaded his life. No, it had eventually come from something safe and familiar. 

After seeing Gibby’s face grown grotesque with the weight of his station and swollen with rage against a man who would never be as burdened as he, after feeling Gibby’s hands around his neck and knowing with absolute certainty that he was about to die for the first time, Wayne wasn’t sure anything else could frighten him again.

Wayne stood up. “Wanna get started showing me the lay of the land? I got nothing but time to kill.”

Somsnosa jumped to her feet. “Yeah! Let me show you how to get to my house from here. It’s a little out of the way, but the route’s all scenic and everything.”

She led the way and he followed, each with a newfound spring in their step.


End file.
